Chao Guo

Chao Guo, PhD, is associate professor and Penn Fellow in the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. Guo is editor in chief of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and founding codirector of the China Institute for Philanthropy and Social Innovation at Renmin University of China.

This article is from the Nonprofit Quarterly’s Winter 2016 edition, “Social Media: The New Nonprofit Nonelective.” We’ve brought it forward today since the US Senate just voted to overturn the FCC’s revocation of net neutrality. Net neutrality, of course, aims to safeguard democratic access to the Internet where many nonprofits spend and accumulate social capital. While the Senate’s action is a positive step, the effort to restore net neutrality still faces many hurdles.

“How,” the author rhetorically asks, “can an organization contribute to a democratic society if there is a democratic deficit in its own governance?” It’s a particularly pertinent question for nonprofits in these times.

Loosening restrictions are creating an exciting environment for China’s emerging nonprofit sector, but the pathways to official recognition are still arduous and millions of organizations remain unregistered—and thus illegal. This fascinating article is a complex and dramatic snapshot of the organizations of civil society in today’s China.